3 Middle Eastern Carriers Switch To Frankfurt Airport Terminal 2

Three Middle Eastern carriers are moving from Frankfurt Airport’s Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 from this weekend onward. Etihad, Oman Air, and Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines (MEA) will all shift operations to the newer of the two terminals, with the first two having moved on 30th October and the latter moving on 1st November. However, the move is not expected to be permanent.

Shifting over

In a statement last week, Fraport, the owners and operators of Frankfurt-Main International Airport (FRA), announced that three airlines are moving from the T1 to T2. Neighbors Etihad and Oman Air shifted operations to Terminal 2 on 30th October, while MEA will join the pair on 1st November.

No explicit reason has been given for the move, but rather a reference to managing passenger traffic in the winter months. Both Etihad and Oman Air are hub airlines with 1x daily and 4x weekly flights to Frankfurt respectively, also using the Boeing 787 for their operations. MEA also flies daily to Frankfurt from Beirut, albeit using the smaller Airbus A321neo for much of the week and the A330-200 occasionally.

Photo: Airbus

For MEA, the move brings home to its SkyTeam partners and makes it the final alliance carrier to move to Terminal 2, likely opening up new lounge opportunities for passengers soon. The same can be said for Oman Air in 2024, when the airline joins the oneworld alliance. Etihad is non-aligned, so its move won’t affect any alliance partnerships, but it is a homecoming of sorts. The Abu Dhabi-based airline left T2 in 2017, shuttering its lounge and moving to T1.

Not forever

In response to comments online, Frankfurt Airport confirmed that the move is not permanent for any of the three airlines. Translating from German, the airport said the transfer is “short-term,” with no timeline for when the trio would return to T1. Since the changes have been made for the winter season, we are unlikely to see a change before late March, when the official summer season begins for airlines.

Terminal 1 is the bigger and older one at Frankfurt Airport, home to Lufthansa and all of its Star Alliance partners. Terminal 2 hosts the other two alliances and any other non-aligned airlines but is notably smaller. In 2019, the airport saw 70.5 million passengers visit or pass through, a number which has fallen to 24.8 million in 2021 but is recovering quickly.

Photo: Thomas Boon | Simple Flying

This winter, Frankfurt will see connections to 246 destinations in 96 countries, with 3,530 weekly departures, down only 6% from pre-pandemic levels. Eurowings and Condor are bringing new routes to Africa, namely Mbombela and the island of Zanzibar. In North America, the most lucrative market, Lufthansa is flying 3x weekly to St. Loius, a new route for the carrier in 2022.

What do you think about the temporary move for Etihad, Oman Air, and MEA? Let us know in the comments!